Top left: Nina Zurier, “Artificial Landscape 531/530” 2024, glazed porcelain. Bottom left: David Ireland, “Untitled” 1994, enamel paint on gelatin silver print. Top right: Jamie Sterling Pitt, “Untitled” 2025, acrylic and flashe on recycled exhibition wood, live oak pollen, Turk’s cap, bayou water, and artist frame. Bottom right: Takming Chuang, “Helen, Ray, and Malachi Visit NY” 2025, clay, bin, liner, produce bag, artist’s original c-prints from late ’90s. All images courtesy of 500 Capp Street.
Saturday, September 6 from 3 to 8pm: The Fall Invitational presented by 500 Capp Street, Et al., and Slash: This collaborative fundraising event celebrates the Bay Area arts community and raises funds to sustain future programming for each organization. The main event is an exhibition and sale which features over 70 artists including Jenny Holzer, Dewey Crumpler, Jim Goldberg, and Maryam Yousif. Additionally a raffle will be held featuring artist-led experiences and performances from Gao Ling and Maria Silk. The event will be held at 500 Capp Street, San Francisco. Purchase tickets here.
Top: Kelly Ording, “Hope” 2025, acrylic on canvas. Bottom left: Brett Flanigan, “Highway 89” 2025, glazed stoneware. Bottom right: Alicia McCarthy, “Untitled” 2024, acrylic on canvas. Images courtesy of Pt.2 Gallery.
September 13 to October 26 – Kelly Ording: Calling You Back to Me; Alicia McCarthy, and Brett Flanigan: Melt solo exhibitions at Pt.2 Gallery: Kelly Ording’s work is a celebration of minimalism, beauty, and patience. She navigates structure and space through slow and intuitive processes of hand dying and painting to create geometric compositions. Alicia McCarthy starts her compositions from the center and radiates outward, weaving strands in and out to build complex patterns leaving in imperfect lines and drips. The loose geometry of Brett Flanigan’s glazed stoneware is reminiscent of outstretched landscapes. His abstract work revolves around self-imposed games or rules, which produce patterns, probability, repetition, and logic. Opening reception will be held on September 13 at 6 p.m. Pt.2 Gallery is located at 1523b & 1525 Webster Street, Oakland.
Left: Michael Hall; Center: Helia Pouyanfar; Right: Elizabeth Estrada. Images courtesy of Recology SF AIR.
September 12, 13 and 16 – Michael Hall: Song Cycle; Helia Pouyanfar: Addendum; and Elizabeth Estrada solo shows at Recology SF: The Recology Artist in Residence program is a space for collaborations and initiatives which go beyond the traditional artist residence program in order to support Bay Area artists. This residence program pushes artists to develop their practice in tandem with deeply engaging with sustainability and community outreach. The three artists featured are Helia Pouyanfar, Michael Hall, and Elizabeth Estrada. Pouyanfar is a sculptural and photographic artist who investigates the transient state of the refugee body and the fluid relationship to space. Hall’s drawings, paintings, and videos examine how objects act as markers of time and place while also holding personal histories, collective desires, and cultural phenomena. Estrada is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, poetry, sculpture, and performance, all which intertwine to investigate themes of spirituality and body politics. Recology Art Studios are located at 503 and 401 Tunnel Avenue, San Francisco.
Tuesday, September 16 from 5-7:30 p.m. artist talks: Elizabeth Estrada at 6, Michael Hall at 6:30, and Helia Pouyanfar at 7.
Top left: Asma Kazmi, “After Jahangir” 2021-2022, photograph, performance, and painting series. Top right: Kelly Finley, “lotus house wishes” 2023, vinyl, thread, archival family photo, steel, sewing needle. Bottom left: Sholeh Asgary plans to string up 41 transistor radios in Wentworth Alley and intends to produce a broadcast of the sonic composition of the alley. Bottom right: Taro Hattori, “”Rolling Counterpoint” 2016-1017 multi media installation variable. Images courtesy of Edge on the Square.
Saturday, September 13 from 4 to10 pm: Superlfex: Powered by Alter Egos and Shadowed Selves presented by Edge on the Square in SF Chinatown: Addressing the current erasure and division in America, this annual contemporary art festival uses the idea of alter egos to represent devices for play, camouflage, and for flexing. These alter egos are considered as collaborators, and enable exploration to activate different avenues of exploration, liberation, and expression. Using art as a vehicle for positive change and community empowerment, this festival is a call to action for solidarity, and celebrates creativity, possibility, and empowerment. Featured artists and collectives include: Ramon Abad, Sholeh Asgary, Salenie Beanie, Vincent Chong aka Crystal Monkey, Culture Shock LA, Kelley Finley, For You, Grant Avenue Follies, Yoon Chung Han, Taro Hattori, Asma Kazmi, LionDanceME, Simon Liu, Sepia Lux, Robyn Mallery, Non-Alien Box, seiji oda, Tiffany Sia / Speculative Place and Alex Nguyen-Vo, SNJV, Tymeansthankyou, V. Vale, Karen Tei Yamashita, Wong Kit Yi, Rene Yung. Super Flex takes over four streets in SF Chinatown—Grant Avenue, Waverly Place, Ross Alley, and Wentworth Place.
Photo by Renee Zellweger. Image courtesy of the artist and Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco.
September 19 to November 1 – Julio César Morales: My America at Gallery Wendi Norris: Morales focuses on the history of immigrant labor and the fragility of the interdependence of the United States and Mexico in this new exhibition. The large scale sound installation and eight new watercolors added to his “Gemelos” series both invite the viewer to explore migration, labor, and underground economics. These multidisciplinary works contemplate the act and history of immigrant labor, and challenge the concept of ‘America’ in the context of the present social climate. Gallery Wendi Norris is located at 436 Jackson Street, San Francisco.
Ongoing to December 1 – Julio César Morales: “OJO” at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art: After nearly a decade in Arizona creating work about the border, this sister exhibition presents work from Morales about his return to California. This exhibition interrogates the history of the border, and what may lie ahead for the people on both sides. The Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art is located at 245 Old Davis Road, Davis.
Shawn Sanders, Shantae Robinson and Christopher Robin Duncan “Untitled” 2024, acrylic paint, marker, sun and time on fabric. Image courtesy of BAC.
September 20 to November 16 – PULLEY A Collaborative Exhibition with NIAD Art Center curated by Christopher Robin Duncan at Berkeley Art Center: Upending the convention of the traditional group show, ten NIAD artists and Christopher Robin Duncan have collaborated with one another, creating works that prioritize a shared creative process. This exhibition features fabric canvases, wearable fabrics, and ceramic sculpture. The sun-bleached canvases featured are site specific, and document the adaptive, responsive, and the mutual exchange between artists working across the disability spectrum. Berkeley Art Center is located at 1275 Walnut Street, Berkeley.
Installation view, Lee ShinJa: Drawing with Thread, 2025. Image courtesy of BAMPFA.
Ongoing to February 1 – LeeShinJa: Drawing with Thread at BAMPFA: Starting her practice in the 1940s during Korea’s independence from Japan, Lee is recognized as one of the first fiber artists in Korea. With works spanning more than five decades, beginning in the 1950s and concluding in the early 2000s, this is the first North American survey of Lee ShinJa’s work. As she was not formally trained, this exhibition showcases Lee’s subversion of dominant traditions of craft, she utilized salvaged yarn from old garments, mosquito nets, grain sacks, and more. Confusing art and craft, found objects and made art, Lee creates large-scale sculptural forms which showcase the new pathways she has created for the possibilities of fiber artwork. BAMPFA is located at 2155 Center Street, Berkeley.
Wednesday, September 17 at 12:15 – Curator’s Tour: Victoria Sung on Lee ShinJa: Drawing with Thread: BAMPFA Senior Curator Victoria Sung addresses the artist’s monumental textile works and the arc of her long and innovative career. No reservation needed.
Arnold J. Kemp, “Stage” 2024. Image courtesy of YBCA.
Ongoing to January 25, 2026 – Bay Area Then at YBCA: Combining historic and recent works, this exhibition brings together artists who repeatably assert their unique vitality, resourcefulness, and camaraderie in the face of shunned despair and crisis. Through historic and recent works, this show recontextualizes the San Francisco art scene from the past to understand the formative role that the complex web of artist-run and alternative spaces that served as essential outlets for expression, listening, and learning from one another. YBCA is located at 701 Mission Street, San Francisco. Purchase tickets here.